World So Cold
by CrazyNutSquirrel
Summary: Charmy blackmails Shadow into agreeing to "critique" a song with him at the studio for their latest episode. Of course, things aren't really that easy... Happy Easter! R&R please, and it's rated T for safety.


**Hey people! Look, it's another of these random Team Chaotix song critique fics! This is to hopefully get my brain working so I can update Iron Hands and Fragile Roses, and actually look at my math book without wanting to stab it (weird, I know). So let's get started shall we! The song we are critiquing is "World So Cold" by Three Days Grace (awesome group), and someone makes a special appeareance! :D Of course, I don't own any of the characters in here.**

Charmy burst through the door, dragging an unfortunate behind him with one hand, in the other, he held a CD. "VECTOR!" The green crocodile stumbled out of his office, looking around for trouble.

"What's wrong!? Is the world going to be destroyed again?!" Charmy gave him a blank look.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Your yell.... IS THAT SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG?!" Shadow gave Vector a glare.

"Unless there is someone else known by that name." Charmy grinned at Vector.

"We've gotta get to the studio Vector! I blackmailed Shadow into agreeing to join us for an episode." Vector blinked.

"You.... blackmailed Shadow... Impossible!"

"I would have thought it was impossible too Vector, however, the bee somehow managed to find some things that I'd rather Rouge didn't find out about." Vector nodded.

"That kid has a knack for finding things he's not supposed to."

"HEY! I'm right here you know!"

"Go find Espio and tell him we're going to the studio, Mina and Ash can come too." Charmy found Ash in the kitchen, making himself a sandwich, but he found Espio and Mina upstairs..... he zoomed downstairs almost immediately, yelling again.

"VECTOR! MINA AND ESPIO WERE KIIIIIIISSING!" The bee crashed into Vector, who crashed into Shadow, resulting in a very uncomfortable situation for all! Especially for Shadow, seeing as Vector has spikes all the way down his back. Ouch. Espio and Mina came downstairs.

Vector grinned at them, "Well whaddaya know, the two lovebirds were actually caught for once." Espio rolled his eyes and Mina giggled while Ash came out of the kitchen, munching on a strip of bacon.

"So I hear you're going to the studio? What's the CD you brought back Charmy?" Charmy held it up.

"It's Three Days Grace's latest album! It's called 'Life Starts Now', awesome title don't you think?" Ash wholeheartedly agreed, seeing as he and Charmy shared the view that Three Days Grace pwned all else. Well..... they pwned ALMOST all else. "And Shadow's going to be there because I blackmailed him with some stuff the author....." A loud voice suddenly boomed.

"REWIND REWIND! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT MY PRESENCE!" So we rewound to the statement with Charmy blackmailing Shadow.

".... with some stuff he doesn't want Rouge to find out about!" The author breathed a sigh of relief, in this fic, they weren't supposed to know about her existence, and she was almost discovered! Curse Charmy bee's big mouth.

***

Shadow stared at the bright, cheery paint for the studio. "Vector, please tell me that this colour scheme wasn't your idea."

"It wasn't, it was Mina's, and if you know what's good for you, you won't tell her you don't like it." Shadow silently agreed. It was best not to anger anthro females, you never knew what lengths they'd go to to get revenge for whatever comment, but then again, that went for some human females too, and a few alien ones Shadow had met. The black hedgehog inwardly winced as he remembered Sonic insulting a female Black Arms soldier (calling her fat), and seeing as she hadn't been able to wallop Sonic, she'd walloped Shadow, who was a bit distracted at that time.

Charmy buzzed over to a stereo and popped the CD in, going to track three. "Hey Ash! Could you see if the cameraman is ready?" Ash gave Charmy a thumbs up and dashed out of the room while Espio told Shadow he was supposed to sit in one of the ridiculously comfortable orange chairs. Shadow was incredulous.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Espio sighed.

"Sadly, I'm not." Mina giggled.

"Seriously Shadow, from what I've heard, you'll be able to handle whatever Charmy throws at you. Good luck!" Vector, Espio, and Mina exited the room, leaving Shadow with Charmy.

"Let the madness begin." Muttered the author as she prepared to hit enter, to start this episode for real. Shadow would be able to cope..... right?

***

Ash opened the door and gave Charmy a thumbs up, showing him that the cameraman was ready. The bee buzzed over to a seat and sat down, grinning and holding the remote, looking like a demonic little.... well..... let's just stick with the fact that he looks like a kid who's realized that if his mother doesn't want his father knowing that she spoils him rotten, she'd better buy him that bag of candy he wants! Or something like that.......

Charmy waved at the camera. "Hey there! I'm Charmy bee as you probably know unless you missed the previous episodes..." (they author had somehow managed to get them on tape and by some plothole or other, they got their own TV show). "Anyway, this is Shadow. Say hi Shadow!" Shadow scowled at Charmy.

"Hmph."

"Well ain't that friendly." Said Charmy, rolling his eyes. Mina giggled as she saw that Shadow's eye twitched. "Anyway people, as you might know if you listen to the band Three Days Grace, they've got a new album! I didn't actually find out until today, which is horrible, but whatever...." Charmy held up the case. "This is it dear people! I've listened to track three, 'World So Cold', and it was then that inspiration..." Or rather, the author, "... struck me and I thought to bring Shadow onto the show for today! Sure I know a few others would have been interesting to ask Shadow about, but this was what worked! To me at least. Anyway, let's get started!" Charmy aimed the remote at the stereo and pressed play.

***

After they reached the end, Charmy turned to Shadow. "Let's go through that again." He played the first stanza then smiled. "What did you think of that part Shadow? Personally, I thought that the whole song seemed to suit you creepily well." Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"I have no comment."

"That's too bad, let's do the next one." Three more lines played, and Shadow was looking decidedly sour. "Seeing as you don't have any thoughts on what the song might mean, what do the lines remind you of?"

"Those ones made me think of being in suspended animation." Shadow said, sounding less-than-pleased. Charmy grinned.

"Cool! Let's do the next stanza." Shadow cut Charmy off before he could talk.

"Existing on this planet that you call home for the first part, and the other part...." Shadow stopped talking, jaw tightening. Unfortunately for Charmy, he made an educated guess (gasp!).

"Living without that person around...? What was the name.... Mario? No that's a guy.... Maria! That's it!" Shadow's expression darkened, Charmy didn't notice though. This was going to be baaaad...... extremely so.

***

"So we'll skip a few stanzas to the last one that isn't repeated. The one with "I'm too your to lose my soul", etc. etc." It played, then Charmy clicked pause, "What did you think of that one Shadow?"

"It makes me think of my immortality. And the fact that I'm supposed to be a teenager when I've been around much much longer. But it also makes me think of what I'd like to do to you...." Charmy obviously didn't hear that last part, seeing as he was still grinning cheerfully.

"And now the last question Shadow!"

"Finally!" Charmy laughed.

"Why don't you want Rouge to find out about those pictures of her that I found?" Shadow's fur went red and his pupils disappeared.

"You will PAY for that!" It took about half an hour to calm Shadow down, but interestingly enough, that episode turned out to be one of their most popular so far, a bunch of Shadow fangirls had found out he was going to be on there, and they all watched, and spread the news of course.

And when the episode became available for purchase...... most Shadow fangirls bought it so they could just watch him, sighing the whole time.... not unlike the author of this mad story, who was grinning as she watched Shadow chasing Charmy, shooting chaos spears, and blowing up most of the horribly cheerful room.

**XD I had fun writing that. :) If you want the lyrics, you can go to Lyric Wiki for them. I don't actually have the song "World So Cold", but I do have three from their album Life Starts Now. "Break", "The Good Life", and "Someone Who Cares". They're pretty good, I recommend listening to them. ^_^ And the cheerful colour scheme of the studio was due to the fact that it is Easter! Happy Easter everyone! ^_^ R&R and tell me what you think. Yes this might not be as good as some of my other stories with the Chaotix, seeing as they didn't actually critique the song, but this idea was just too good to pass up. ^_^ Oh, and a question: Do you think I should take the Chaotix song fics and just put them together into one story?**


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